Behind the Cards: Quinlan Vos

By Cory Herndon

The Phantom Menace introduced a number of popular figures from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. To provide a better understanding of these characters, we offer the following accounts—the histories behind the units in your deck!

Gray Areas: Force-Users Touched by the Dark Side

This Kiffar from Kiffex comes from a long line of law-enforcement officers, and as a Jedi, he served the Council as an investigator on numerous occasions. In addition to an almost instinctive ability to use the Force that brought him to the attention of Ki-Adi-Mundi as a child, Quinlan also possesses psychometric abilities, which let him read the telepathic residue left on inanimate objects. Master Tholme took over young Quinlan's training, which (at the insistence of the boy's powerful family) initially took place on Kiffex. Later, Tholme brought Vos to Coruscant to complete his training.

Quinlan Vos' descent into darkness—and, perhaps, back again—began with an ill-fated mission to Ryloth, where he was accompanied by his apprentice, the Twi'lek female Aayla Secura. Secura's uncle and a duplicitous Devaronian lured the pair into a trap that wiped their memories for a lengthy period, bringing each dangerously close to the Dark Side.

After he had recovered his memories and advanced to the rank of Jedi Master, Quinlan Vos turned down an order to become a general in the Clone Wars, preferring instead to maintain an underground spy network that knew him as Korto Vos, ex-lawman. When this cover was revealed to the Separatists, Quinlan Vos seemed to leave the Jedi fold and join Count Dooku. Indeed, his actions since joining the Confederacy's leader seem to have convinced even trusted friends such as Tholme, Aayla Secura, and Obi-Wan Kenobi that Vos has truly left the side of light. His ultimate loyalties are still suspect, but Quinlan Vos has cheated fate and the Dark Side before. He may do so yet again.

In the cards: Quinlan Vos (A) allows you to set aside 3 card from your deck, and play any Battle cards set aside this way as if in your hand. This ability was designed to reflect his psychometric talent, of learning things by touching objects (the object in this case being your deck).